I just noticed you're not running Natural Order. It's low on the curve, and it has good synergy with your tokens.

Author:

TheDoctor [ 2014-Nov-09 12:47 pm ]

Post subject:

Re: Rhys - token swarm!

Shabbaman wrote:

TheDoctor wrote:

"Oh god kill it now"

I think that's exactly what you want

I just noticed you're not running Natural Order. It's low on the curve, and it has good synergy with your tokens.

Problem with N.O. is that it's too expensive. If I were to be using it to combo out, perhaps it's be worth it... but I couldn't even snag a foil Craterhoof when those were cheap, so there's nothing to really N.O. into as it stands.

Author:

Shabbaman [ 2014-Nov-09 8:16 pm ]

Post subject:

Re: Rhys - token swarm!

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Even if you run the single finisher like Armada Wurm, I'd say it's still worth it. It's even good for grabbing Seedborn Muse or something like Gaddock Teeg, though that's more fun at instant speed... I see the M2015 foil version of Chord of Calling isn't outrageously expensive (at least it's not when compared to it's Ravnica version): http://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Magic+ ... ling#paper

Like I said, I like it, mainly because it makes me think of playing Legacy back in the days. But it doesn't belong at every table. Tutoring and fetching answers is kinda lame, and leads to repetitive games. However, in a high powered metagame it leads to interesting games (for spikes). You're running tutors, so I don't think you're opposed to this

So back to NO. I loved NO when it was about the only broken thing a casual green mage could do. I owned a few and traded them since I didn't have a full playset and didn't play them anyway. There wasn't a Progenitus to fetch back then, and it was a 5 buck rare. Some years ago I acquired two judge foils, with the intent to trade those for a full playset. I just checked the price, and it seems the judge foil has fallen victim to speculation the last year: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Judge+ ... rder#paper That's not really the price of a card I would recommend for EDH. The funny thing is: I payed close to what a regular version costed, but those were sold out everywhere. Some webshops list their promo's in a different category, so they don't readily show up in a search. Sometimes this even means they get sloppy updating the price of those cards, so you can get them for cheap. I just found two of them for 80 euros (big bucks, I know), which is cheap if Goldfish is right about the price. PM me if you want the link.

tl;dr Chord of Calling is cheap

Author:

asi [ 2014-Nov-09 9:43 pm ]

Post subject:

Re: Rhys - token swarm!

I personally found Rhys to be the best in a mono-green deck, because Beacon of Creation, Howl of the Night Pack English, stuff like Caged Sun, Gauntlet of Power et al are extremely good with him, and white doesn't offer too much I'd actually want (seriously, the token generators in white can be exchanged for green ones, you can remove flying creatures at ease, enchantments and artifacts aren't a problem in mono-green etc. etc.)

Lots of old standbys making way for new tech. The feeling I have right now is "so many cards I want in, but no cards I want to cut". Emeria Angel is next on the chopping block, but there are at least 6 different cards destined for that slot, a couple are ones I've already cut!

In the meantime, I'm finally putting up the deck to share Warning! Big images.

I celebrated for a life milestone at the beginning of last year, and my present was a bunch of Expedition lands. To take advantage of this, I've upgraded to Skyshroud Claim to get my "forests". The cards are beautiful and the decks feels more complete. I don't think I'll ever get the black-border Savannah but one can dream

Finally, Emeria Angel is benched. Twilight Drover comes back after a long hiatus from the first build of the deck. I am a much better player than I was back then, and I think I can use the Drover card better now. Kaladesh brought a new goodie for token decks in the form of Fumigate. Finally I can clear the board and not feel so bad getting a little life buffer from losing my field of 1/1's. Many of tokens player will hate this cut but Cathars' Crusade is out for ol' Overrun. Crusade is insane, and nuts, and overpowered, and I have never ever used it. Zero times has the Crusade done anything for me in the past 3 years of EDH games, so it's benched until the meta changes. A less sad cut but a hard one nonetheless is Rootborn Defenses for new hotness Heroic Intervention. Saving my creatures is important, but saving my enchantments too is worth more than the Populate trigger right now.

I'll have to make new scans of my deck now with all these new cards However I'll wait until after my final cut is made for the season -- Terastodon. Love the elephant, but it's not been useful for a very very long time. Currently considering Wurmcoil Engine or some regrowth card (Wildest Dreams?) or biting the bullet on an Eternal Masters copy of Natural Order (god N.O. foils are expensive). The N.O. would let me swap out the Overrun for some other card as it's effectively "Sorcery - Get Craterhoof".

Overrun continues to be the revolving door of the deck. It's out this time to make way for Sol Ring [FtV: Relics]. It's about time I bucked up and got one, so here it is and ooooh boy has the deck felt its inclusion.

Reclamation Sage begrudgingly enters the list. I still wish the promo was foil, as I much prefer the promo's art to the normal card's art. Acidic Slime is just too costly for doing pretty much the same thing.

Finally the last two changes were the most difficult for me. Terasty Nasty has literally done nothing for years. I draw this card I say "you have to be good, you destroy things" and then never use it. Winding Canyons is on the ever shrinking list of "cannot be foiled" cards here, and with so few actual creature cards in the list now... there's no justification for its inclusion. Natural Order and Blighted Steppe give me a decent tutor (for Hoof) and a way to gain life (which this deck needs ever so slightly). Would N.O. for Terastodon make the elephant better? Yeah. Would I have cut anything else to keep Terasty Nasty in and make room for N.O.? Not at this time. I'm fed up with the card, so it's benched until I can reevaluate it.

So what's in the near future for this deck? Well... honestly? Not much. It's pretty darn good as it stands. Would I like a Natural Order target other than Hoof? Eh, not really. A non-fuctional change I'm considering is finally making all my Forests the same artwork. I acquired my foil basics whilst drafting Innistrad. I'd ask for foil basics to sweeten or even out trades. Nowadays these are much harder to acquire. Aside from that I'm looking to set aside funds for a Judge promo Command Beacon. Growing Rites of Itlimoc is sooo tempting, but the enchantment side does NOTHING for me. Sucks to be the guy who'd rather have a real Gaea's Cradle or nothing.

As a parting note for my update post, I noticed that this thread of mine has received a ridiculous number of pages views in its lifetime. I know that can't all just be me refreshing and updating my list multiple times If there are folks who've followed my deck's journey and enjoyed it, or (better yet) have learned something along the way -- THANK YOU! Although it's not a true discussion of deckbuilding theory or competitive card choices, I always loved seeing the deck builder's thought process in their card choices. Hopefully anyone wanting to build Rhys or is tweaking their own lovely deck, can gleam some ideas from my thread and decklist.